15 January 2006 session notes--

Gi did ask Thomas how he knew about his get; Thomas heard about it from the fæ realms. (He does hear things.)

Nil is able to determine that the voices from the conch shell are those of the drowned children of Chalycidice. Omphale’s options: sleep in a pillowcase; or talk to the voices, and take careful notes. The pillowcase is scratchy, so.

9th Communion (cont’d)

names

Little Yem, a child in the Wolf Priest’s retinue, played by Kip;
Tillah, a Wolf;
Abaapa, another Wolf;

scenes

The trees. There’s a crowd at the gates; Receptrix is asking Gi to come up and see something. She’s with her companion, and climbs up on the companion’s back, and asks Gi to join her; hold on, she says. The companion lifts up into the air. Gi throws up a little in his mouth. Are you okay? says Receptrix. Gi mutters a breath-freshening spell. He’s queasy and dizzy.

The trees off in the distance, a couple miles away—there’s a rustling, and the leaves end up forming mosaics at times of angry faces that bleed down toward the covenant before fading. Can you see the reddish-purple? says Receptrix. No, says Gi. Didn’t think you would. But you see them moving? Yes, says Gi. —The companion begins to descend. Gi mentions the run-in with man-eating trees that Calvus mentioned.

Calvus, Ishta, Nishoba, Minkho, the Wolf Priest, Gi, Murry, and Receptrix head out to look at the trees. Calvus briefs Gi on the giant boar and the dead deer that spoke, and reminds him of the swineherds. Some briefing on Nishoba’s recent attempt to reach Waaka’ Tanampalhi’. The Wolf Priest meets them on the other side of the wall, with one of his small children in tow; Calvus leans in to tell Gi that the child has the Gift. The Wolf Priest is happy, though wet. It’s raining—a nice, slow, gentle, soaking rain. He introduces the kid as Little Yem. Yem!

The Wolf Priest pats Receptrix’ companion’s neck and Receptrix tells him the companion likes him. Introductions are made. The Wolf Priest talks about how usually they can find what’s making the forest angry and remove it, but this time, he thinks it’s the covenant. So they’ll need to find another solution. Calvus mentions his theory that the theocratic powers that used to rule Gætan were tool-based, and item-based, which is why Tully’s magic, say, has had more success in sussing out certain facts (in his tower, Tully looks up and says, “Maybe I’m just better than you,” and then he says, “Why did I say that?”). But all of the monsters, he says, are in some way both corpus and mentem. Human flesh, and human mind. Nishoba says that monsters are creatures of the wilderness, not towns. Ah, but people are lured out into the wilderness, says Calvus. The Wolf Priest insists it has nothing to do with the wilderness; when trees are left alone, they don’t eat men. They have no reason to. This is a problem influenced by men. Calvus says it’s hard to know if something happens because you’re there without being there. Ishta says as how there wasn’t nearly this much going on before the other magi showed up. For the past decade. Under questioning from Nishoba, Receptrix allows as how it might be a spirit moving through the trees, and not the trees themselves, necessary. Calvus in Cholæic mentions the undead Ulveggi, which was affected by both mentem and corpus magic.

Gi asks Receptrix about the purple. She mentions it’s the color of the vim of the forest that’s moving. The Wolf Priest says something’s coming; a large power. The trees aren’t talking to Gi. Ishta asks Nishoba to talk to the trees, but he has no aptitude with herbam; he did borrow a device from Tully. The largest boar they’ve ever seen steps out. The Wolf Priest plants his staff and grunts; the boar stops. Little Yem starts capering. Calvus begins slowly casting the spell the Wolf Priest taught him; Gi starts talking to the dirt, which tells him they’re poison. Ishta pulls out a mask. The ground tells Gi that twelve years ago it was steeped in blood and that is on his head. You are poison, it tells him.

The Wolf Priest walks up to the boar and lays his staff against its head, and then takes each tusk in his hands and lays his head against its head. Tell me what you want. Kill them all, says the boar. What else. Take your vengeance. Take the justice your people require. My people live a good life, says the Wolf Priest. Your people live a compromised life. You serve dragons. Leave! says the Wolf Priest. This is our land! We invited them! Yours? says the boar. You would claim the mountain? You would claim the forest? The river? You would take all this in your hands? Go! says the Wolf Priest. You will die, screaming, says the boar. It jerks its head out of his hands, cutting them. A taste, says the boar. The Wolf Priest comes back and gives his hand to Little Yem, who takes it in both of his.

Some tree grubs leap on Murry’s back. They’re brushed off. They should come up with a better attack, says Murry. I’m sure, given time, they would have killed a lesser man, says the Wolf Priest. He sends Little Yem up to warn the others.

Gi asks if this sort of thing has happened around a war before. The Wolf Priest isn’t sure. Should we continue further? says Calvus. Sure, says Gi.

Sonata flies up as a flock of swifts. She’s followed her connection to Gi. Murry nocks an arrow, then lowers it; Hoopoe announces Sonata, loudly, as she coalesces, and Murry draws his bow again. Gi catches Sonata up. The Wolf Priest explains that whatever’s behind this rage is misrepresenting itself. It isn’t, itself, the entirety of the forest. Though it is very old. It accuses you of working with dragons? says Nishoba. It is not the place of these powers to ask me to kill you, says the Wolf Priest. You’ve done nothing to make us your enemy. Well— says Ishta, and stops herself.

There’s the sound of rattling bones from the forest, all about them. The Wolf Priest says they’re angrier because of the boar. Murry suggest burning out the moving trees; Calvus points out if it’s a spirit, burning the trees won’t do much good. Minkho’s getting angry. Nishoba tries to calm him; he tosses his head and shuffles off. At least if we’re out here for a while we brought dinner, says Murry. Minkho growls as best he can and starts running back toward the covenant. The Wolf Priest says the pig-dog has the right idea; he’s gone as far as he can. He tells Sonata they will speak soon, and then heads back to the covenant.

Gi, Calvus, and Murry head decide to head deeper into the forest; Receptrix will follow. Sonata asks Gi if this is similar to what he’s dealt with before, with his master. The bones? says Gi. Yes. But the anger is different. Sonata heads back to the covenant. Ishta hands them some levitation and fire potions; she and Nishoba are heading back to the covenant. Nishoba asks Calvus is he has milk, blood, and water; he does. Gi asks what’s up with milk and blood and water, and Calvus tells him.

The trees are making the path difficult. Tree branches block, roots trip, undergrowth snags. Gi’s hand starts to itch, and he sees it’s covered with chiggers; he rego animals them away. He’s doing his best not to cast twist the living tree or anything like that. Calvus moves through unperturbed, as branches swing toward him and stop at the last moment, bouncing off his protection. They see the corpses of this small animal, or that, crawling with insects—though the rear left leg of the rabbit is jerking, and the squirrel lifts its half-eaten head.

Murry notes behind them the path is open; he steps backward with no difficulty, and steps forward and is immediately tripped. Branches poke him on the way down.

Gi is inclined to agree with the Wolf Priest: this isn’t the natural forest. The smell of blood is suddenly strong in the air; the mud puddles around redden. Gi casts intellego aquam and intellego corpus and sees only that they’re surrounded by mud puddles. The trees have drawn back in a sort of enclosure; Gi and Calvus are both casting intellego vim. The anger’s attention is focussed here. It feels like the monster vim Calvus has sensed before, though with more herbam.

It’s getting dark, says Gi. Yes, we should, says Calvus. They turn to go back, only the path back curls up a cliff that hadn’t been there before. The edge of it is higher than their heads, and muddy, and there’s no roots to hold onto. Gi sighs and looks up at the branches tightly woven above them and he pulls out the levitation potions. Murry tosses Gi one end of a rope and swigs a potion. They fly up, but the tree branches block and push; Gi pushes back. The rope’s cut, and they get scratches, but all three make it out of the thicket, and Murry figures out how to steer the potion, skidding upright through the air, arms folded, gazing serenely left and right to steer.

Back at the covenant, as Nishoba heads in from the gates and into the Great Hall, Andrew approaches him. Andrew explains his position; Nishoba says he’s an apprentice. Do you know anything about the area mushrooms? I was told you’re from the area. The person I represent has very particular tastes in breakfast foods. Nishoba allows as he knows the mushrooms. Andrew hugs him. Nishoba facepalms him. Andrew sprouts a hundred branches and wraps around Nishoba. Nishoba cracks open the flame spell. The tree completely envelopes Nishoba, though it is on fire. It splits into three trunk sections, its roots scrabbling for purchase.

Perdix shows up, chanting. The tree scrabbles for the door. Perdix’ spell slaps the tree down, killing it, but Nishoba’s still inside, and the tree’s still on fire. Ishta and some guards try to hack him out, but Tully tells them to stop; his leather thing starts rapidly whittling down to Nishoba’s head. Where is his head? Perdix points. —Calvus had seven-leagued the others, once they got free of the thicket; Calvus and Gi and Murry appear about now, and Gi perdo herbams enough of the tree that Nishoba can breathe. Someone should check on Andrew to see if he’s still here or if this was always Andrew. Someone should check on the cart and horse— There’s screams from the stables. Murry starts running; Calvus and Gi seven-league there. A giant holly bush is where the cart was, and the horse is half-swallowed by it, and it’s trying to grab another horse, and a couple of stable boys are thrusting branches back with horse gear, and Gi and Calvus pile into it. Murry puts an arrow into the horse’s eye, to put it out of its misery.

Gi’s twisted the tree into a form and frozen it with vis; Calvus turns the floor to stone, to break its connection with the earth. They move it to the stone shed.

Ishta’s chopping the tree into cordwood with Tully’s magical axe. The wood’s long dead, riddled with dry rot, vis-less. Nishoba’s feels like he’s been brutally beaten. Ishta gives him a healing potion.

Calvus shows Gi the hungry baby, who’s being kept by a simple woman. It has webbed hands and feet and pale skin but otherwise looks like a baby, only maybe its mouth is a little too big. Gi wants to know what it’s been eating. Milk, says Calvus. This is why I think Gætani monsters are tied to the people, says Calvus.

A guard and a servant are sent to investigate Andrew’s room, which they find is choked with vines. They head back down to report to a mage.

Sonata heads down from her rooms by fluttering out in a flock of birds; she sees the vines crawling out of Andrew’s window, seizing the wall of the covenant, swallowing more and more. She unleashes a cry of warning. Calvus and Gi leave the hungry baby’s room and run to the other side of the covenant. Ishta’s stymied with her axe by the room full of vines. She pours her bignasty spell on it, filling it with glass shards; bits and pieces of it break off and clear some space in the room, but now it’s got razor-sharp bits of glass to flail at people with. —Gi throws a perdo herbam spell with a vis boost, and everything in the room turns to brown dust, and curling dry tendrils of dead vine, and Gi’s got a wreath of laurel leaves around his head. He picks his way through the broken glass to the window. There’s still huge clumps of it, growing on the wall outside, surrounding a large clear circle of brown dust. The courtyard’s covered. It’s going over the cliff.

Inside his room, Cameron looks up, wondering what all the fuss is about.

Gi heads downstairs, exhausted; Nil is sitting on the bench next to Perdix. Gi offers Nil some herbam vis to use with a stronger perdo spell.

Sonata’s clearing the courtyard with muto, transforming the vines into air with a dramatic reading of an appropriate secta; Cameron comes out onto his balcony, scribbling a story about how surprised Sonata is at the strength of her spell. The air is roiling, filled with dust and bits of glass and vine and tornadolettes.

Perdix heads out, sees all is under control outside, and goes back in, sitting by the fire with their apprentice, giving each other neck rubs. Gi sets himself up in the baths with something hot and alcoholic.

Calvus finds some vines that had grown into a corner of the ruins, and he attempts to turn it into corpus. They curl into a tiny man, three feet tall, naked, twitching, foaming at the mouth. A perfectly formed dead ringer for Andrew. He touches it and it screams, a high, keening scream that slices through his brain like a knife. He muzzles it. It’s healthy, but utterly mindless. It clutches at him as he picks it up, and tries to nurse at his neck. It wails when he pulls it away. He heads into the Great Hall.

Sonata comes downstairs, leaning on Cameron. Andrew starts screaming at the sight of her. Calvus explains what he’s done. And people call us weird, says Perdix. Are you frequently in this state? says Nil. What, exhausted, after having saved the covenant from magical attack? Well, actually...

Tishkilla comes into Gieron’s brewery and tells him there’s some kind of attack from monsters out there and he’d better get the other priests together because some tree-thing is eating a horse. Are you drunk? says Gieron. Shut up! snaps Tishkilla. They arrange to meet with the various priests at the Scarecrow King? Tishkilla frowns. I dunno, give me a landmark! The stables? Sure, the stables. Aahaloppachi brings her spindle; Gieron his flask; Woochi his ladle; Tishkilla her sporran. Ibaa’s out looking for Shoha. They decide they must do something. When the Corn Maiden arrives, they’ll need to devise a visitor’s ritual for the town, and teach it, and also teach the guards to offer guests milk and blood and water. Shoha shows up; he’s briefed; he tells them something happened up in the courtyard, only Ibaa says no, she got that wrong. A stablehand tells them a little of what happened, including that something happened up by the courtyard. The priests head up en masse to see what’s what. —A conference with Perdix and Nil, as Ishta pretends to sleep; Nil steps in to describe what happened, and rather snarkily allows as how it’s odd they weren’t officially informed. Ishta wakes up at that point and tells them it had been a long, hard fight, and rather chaotic. Sonata’s there, completely quiet, barely following the conversation; she waves to Receptrix as she comes in. —Ishta’s asking what the Corn Maiden will need. Some discussion about what will be done when she does arrive, to create a village and draw the line; Perdix is worried. Doing so, when the forest is already so angry—I can assist, says Nil. We can all assist, says Perdix. No, says Tishkilla; we must walk this alone, says Woochi. Someone will die, says Perdix. If that must happen, says Tishkilla. We are willing to die if that is what must be. Of course, says Perdix. I did not mean to denigrate you. You will walk alone.

Nishoba goes to Calvus’ room to summon him to the impromptu meeting. Perdix summons their apprentice to go upstairs. Ishta’s telling the priests about the (somewhat muddled) history of Sol Media Nox. Perdix waves to Calvus as they pass. Calvus apologizes to the priests for not informing them earlier. Tishkilla tells him that the guards must offer proper greetings of blood and milk and water, and he agrees. —Some discussion of getting everyone inside the walls (but the Wolf Priest); Abaapa is off with his uncle, and they’ll need deal with that. Woochi’s going to talk to the Wolf Priest, the mention of whom upsets Tishkilla. Gieron will tell the Wolves to have the Priest meet Woochi outside at dawn.

meta

Some discussion as to what might actually be behind the manifestations of the woods’ anger: separation from the King, who kept stuff down; a Miller device for psychological warfare; the Judges, or the Red Moon priests, perhaps.

Jenn contested the trees with five dice and three stakes: getting himself and Calvus out; getting Murry, dangling at the end of the rope, out; and not being injured. She got three successes and two failures. There were some scratches, and Murry’s rope got cut, but he’s still floating with the levitating potion he’s drunk.

Barry took three dice: to succesfully close around Nishoba; put out the fire; and avoid being burnt. He rolled two failures and a success.

Kip took one die for the success of the banishment spell; a five would kill it, a six would destroy it, and free Nishoba.

The holly bush, now that the tree is dead, and it’s cut off from the forest, is terribly confused, and doesn’t know where it is, or why, or how it got there.

Matt’s theory was so damned odd, it was suggested he rolled a four-sided die. He rolled a four.